Question 1

Both social psychologists and sociologists are interested in aggression.Compared to sociologists,which of the following questions is a social psychologist most likely to ask?

Accepted Answer

A) What is the effect of hand gun laws on homicide rates in different regions? 
B) Do prisons deter homicide? 
C) Does increased policing lead to lower homicide rates? 
D) Are homicide rates higher among members of the lower class? 
E) When does frustration lead to aggression?

Question 2

Recall that Liberman,Samuels,and Ross (2004)randomly assigned participants previously identified as either competitive or cooperative to one of two games: the "Wall Street Game," or the "Community Game." Also recall that fully twice as many players in the Wall Street Game behaved competitively compared to people who played the Community Game.What do these findings suggest?

Accepted Answer

A) True personality differences do not exist. 
B) Even minor aspects of a social situation can override personality differences. 
C) All the competitive people ended up in the Wall Street Game group by chance. 
D) It is not important to study individual differences in personality. 
E) All the competitive people ended up playing the Wall Street Game.

Question 3

Curtailing the spread of AIDS with scary television ads designed to frighten people into practicing safe sex is unlikely to work because

Accepted Answer

A) viewers may protect their self-esteem by denying that the message is relevant to them. 
B) it is hard to know whether a given ad is frightening enough. 
C) the contents of such ads are too controversial,and offend most viewers. 
D) people are not well informed enough about the disease for the ads to be effective. 
E) the government will not fund such projects.

Question 4

Research by Lee Ross suggests that even when people recognize that others perceive information differently,they persist in thinking that others are biased while they themselves are objective.This illustrates the idea of

Accepted Answer

A) social psychology. 
B) naïve realism. 
C) individual differences. 
D) implicit values. 
E) conflicting construals.

Question 5

Why is a scientific approach preferable to reliance on folk wisdom and common sense?

Accepted Answer

A) Common sense approaches focus on the situation and not on personality. 
B) Common sense puts too much emphasis on personality. 
C) Nothing useful can be learned from journalists,philosophers,or social critics. 
D) Folk wisdom and common sense are filled with contradictions. 
E) Science has tested and debunked most folk wisdom.

Question 6

Jamal was confused by his sister's relationship with her boyfriend.They just didn't seem to have anything in common."Oh well," Jamal decided,"I guess opposites really do attract." Jamal's explanation is an example of

Accepted Answer

A) philosophy. 
B) folk wisdom. 
C) social psychology. 
D) rationalization. 
E) sociology.

Question 7

People often construe the world as they do in order to maintain a favourable image of themselves.This assumption underlies the ________ approach.

Accepted Answer

A) public image 
B) Gestalt 
C) accuracy motive 
D) self-esteem 
E) self-perception

Question 8

When Prya and Mohammed returned home after a night on the town,they found their baby crying because her diaper needed to be changed.The babysitter was sitting in front of the television,ignoring the baby's crying.Mohammed and Prya decided that the babysitter was callous and uncaring,and they swore that they would never hire her again.Mohammed and Prya's interpretation of the babysitter's actions was based on

Accepted Answer

A) philosophy. 
B) bias. 
C) a deduction. 
D) scientific methodology. 
E) common sense.

Question 9

When confronted with fear-inducing messages about AIDS or smoking,people do not always behave rationally and avoid exposure.They sometimes merely deny that the threat exists.The text suggests this is because

Accepted Answer

A) the threat conflicts with their self-fulfilling prophecy. 
B) of a desire to maintain self-esteem. 
C) they are too lazy to respond to their construals. 
D) they are trying to avoid unpleasant cognitions. 
E) of a desire to be as accurate as possible.

Question 10

The term "self-fulfilling prophecy" refers to the tendency to

Accepted Answer

A) be motivated to fulfill our hopes and dreams. 
B) ignore social cues. 
C) live up to our highest expectations of ourselves. 
D) strive for self-actualization. 
E) inadvertently elicit the very behaviours we expect from others.

Question 11

After reading Chapter 1,if you were to advise producers of a safe-sex television campaign,what would you tell them?

Accepted Answer

A) Remember that sometimes people would rather feel good than be accurate. 
B) Beware of the fundamental attribution error. 
C) Be sure to include statistics on the number of new cases of AIDS in Canada. 
D) Remember to provide complete information and get your facts right. 
E) AIDS is more likely to be transmitted via intravenous drug use than via sex.

Question 12

One of the tasks of the social psychologist is to

Accepted Answer

A) ignore the notion of human consciousness. 
B) make educated guesses about specific situations. 
C) seek agreement with one another. 
D) use folk wisdom to understand the social world. 
E) integrate folk wisdom into modern psychology.

Question 13

Your roommate left her homework on the couch,where you plan to watch TV.When you move her work,you notice that she is reading an article about how to decide whether someone really likes her.You conclude that your roommate is taking a class in

Accepted Answer

A) social psychology. 
B) philosophy. 
C) anthropology. 
D) sociology. 
E) political science.

Question 14

What is one likely undesirable consequence of foregoing accuracy in favour of justifying our past behaviours? Justifying past behaviour can

Accepted Answer

A) decrease our self-esteem. 
B) decrease the probability of learning from past experiences. 
C) decrease our self-worth. 
D) cause us to totally distort reality. 
E) decrease our self-confidence in social situations.

Question 15

If Professor Sharma defined social situations in terms of their objective physical properties,rather than their subjective properties,he would probably focus on _______ as determining behaviour.

Accepted Answer

A) interpretation 
B) reinforcement and punishment 
C) personality characteristics 
D) emotion 
E) Gestalt principles

Question 16

What does philosophy have in common with folk wisdom? Both

Accepted Answer

A) often contain contradictions,and it's difficult to know which explanation is right. 
B) are often incorrect in their assumptions about social behaviour. 
C) are often based on social norms. 
D) often become outdated with rapid societal changes. 
E) rely often on subjective construals.

Question 17

Julia eats granola bars and avoids chocolate bars,even though the granola bars contain 50% more fat and 15% more sodium than the chocolate bars.According to a social cognition approach,why might that be?

Accepted Answer

A) Julia needs to justify paying more for the granola bar. 
B) Julia would score low on a test of intelligence. 
C) Julia is motivated to convince her friends that she is a healthy person. 
D) Julia failed to seek out all the relevant facts about the nutrition value of those snacks. 
E) Julia is motivated to see herself as a healthy person.

Exam 1: Introduction to Social Psychology